Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fiancé, Riley Roberts, have been engaged since 2022, but their relationship began over a decade earlier.
Ocasio-Cortez first met Roberts when they were both undergraduate students at Boston University.
The couple started dating after becoming acquainted at a weekly debate event and continued their relationship throughout college, as detailed in the biography Take Up Space: The Unprecedented AOC.
Although they eventually broke up after graduation, they reunited several years later.
By 2022, Ocasio-Cortez had become a prominent figure in politics, and Roberts was ready to propose. Reflecting on this time, Ocasio-Cortez admitted she had some doubts about moving forward.
When Roberts expressed his intention to propose that year, she told him he would need to “woo” her and “convince” her why they should marry after being together for some time.
Her hesitation was partly due to the significant changes they had experienced since their initial meeting.
However, Ocasio-Cortez realized that Roberts was the type of partner who celebrated her success and was not insecure about her accomplishments. Ultimately, the couple became engaged in April 2022.
“I feel like I won the men lottery in my life,” Ocasio-Cortez told in September of that year, adding Roberts to a list of men she admires, including her late father, Sergio Ocasio, and her chief of staff, Gerardo Bonilla Chavez.
So who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s fiancé? Here’s everything to know about Riley Roberts and his relationship with the politician.
Roberts hails from Arizona. Although little is known about his early life, he attended Boston University after high school, where he studied sociology and finance.
After graduating from college, Roberts returned to Arizona and began working as a UX growth consultant, helping to launch websites for small businesses.
According to a now-deleted LinkedIn profile, he also worked on marketing for HomeBinder, an online home-management service, in 2014.
Roberts expressed his passion for helping subscription startups grow through Facebook Ads, website conversion-rate optimization, and user experience design on his LinkedIn profile.
He also applied his skills to assist Ocasio-Cortez early in her campaign, notably aiding with digital marketing and Facebook outreach.
The couple first crossed paths over a decade ago while studying at Boston University, where they both attended a weekly student town hall known as “Coffee & Conversations.” Ocasio-Cortez described their initial interactions to Vogue as “true nerdy fashion.”
Roberts was known for his provocative questions during these debates. According to the biography *Take Up Space*, he would challenge conventional thinking, which Ocasio-Cortez found intellectually stimulating.
After graduation, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts parted ways, with Roberts moving back to Arizona and Ocasio-Cortez staying on the East Coast.
The couple reconnected around 2015, as confirmed by Ocasio-Cortez’s mother in an interview with the Daily Mail. Roberts eventually relocated to New York to be closer to Ocasio-Cortez, working from their apartment in the Bronx.
Despite their long history together, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts prefer to maintain a private relationship. During college, they were discreet about their romance, with some friends unaware of their relationship until years later.
Even now, they keep a low profile. Roberts rarely appears on Ocasio-Cortez’s social media, and the couple is seldom photographed together. Occasionally, Roberts is mistaken for a campaign volunteer rather than Ocasio-Cortez’s partner.
Although Roberts prefers to remain out of the spotlight, he has faced media scrutiny.
A conservative political strategist criticized him when it was discovered that Roberts had a House staff email address, suggesting that Ocasio-Cortez was trying to provide him with a taxpayer-funded salary.
Ocasio-Cortez quickly addressed the rumors, clarifying that Roberts had the House email address to access her Google calendar, a common practice for political spouses and families.
